In an effort to promote usage of electric vehicles rather than internal combustion vehicles, some electric utility companies have proposed charging a lower rate for electricity provided to charge electric vehicles than the rate ordinarily applied to electricity for other conventional uses (e.g., powering personal residences, powering businesses, etc.). As demand for petroleum-based fuels increases and supply for petroleum-based fuels decreases, even more electric utility companies may propose this pricing model. Meanwhile, beyond electricity pricing schemes, numerous other reasons may exist why it may be desirable to separately measure the electricity used to charge an electric vehicle from the electricity provided to the remainder of a residence and/or a business. For example, separately measuring the electricity used to charge an electric vehicle may prove useful to researchers conducting analytical research and/or to consumers desiring to budget personal electricity consumption.
However, distinguishing the electricity provided to charge an electric vehicle from the electricity provided to the remainder of a personal residence and/or a business can present various challenges. For example, technologies for identifying electricity usage by identifying or segregating individual electric loads through a single connection to the local electric grid may be complicated and/or cost prohibitive. Likewise, attempting to separately measure electricity by configuring multiple electric systems with multiple parallel connections to the electric grid may not only be cost prohibitive, but may also raise significant legal concerns. For example, legal regulations may limit a personal residence and/or a business to a single electric mains. Other concerns for separately measuring electricity include precluding electricity diversion (e.g., covertly routing electricity intended for charging an electric vehicle to use for other purposes in order to illegally benefit from the cost savings) and proximity of a personal residence, such as an apartment, and/or a business to the electric mains.
Accordingly, a need or potential for benefit exists for systems and methods that allow for measuring electricity that is reliable, cost effective, and/or easy to operate/perform.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention. The same reference numerals in different figures denote the same elements.
The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein are, for example, capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Furthermore, the terms “include,” and “have,” and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, device, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, system, article, device, or apparatus.
The terms “left,” “right,” “front,” “back,” “top,” “bottom,” “over,” “under,” and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.
The terms “couple,” “coupled,” “couples,” “coupling,” and the like should be broadly understood and refer to connecting two or more elements or signals, electrically, mechanically and/or otherwise. Two or more electrical elements may be electrically coupled, but not be mechanically or otherwise coupled; two or more mechanical elements may be mechanically coupled, but not be electrically or otherwise coupled; two or more electrical elements may be mechanically coupled, but not be electrically or otherwise coupled. Coupling may be for any length of time, e.g., permanent or semi-permanent or only for an instant.
“Electrical coupling” and the like should be broadly understood and include coupling involving any electrical signal, whether a power signal, a data signal, and/or other types or combinations of electrical signals. “Mechanical coupling” and the like should be broadly understood and include mechanical coupling of all types.
The absence of the word “removably,” “removable,” and the like near the word “coupled,” and the like does not mean that the coupling, etc. in question is or is not removable.
The term “real time” is defined with respect to operations carried out as soon as practically possible upon occurrence of a triggering event. A triggering event can comprise receipt of data necessary to execute a task or to otherwise process information. Because of delays inherent in transmission and/or in computing speeds, the term “real time” encompasses operations that occur in “near” real time or somewhat delayed from a triggering event.
The term “coordinate” and similar forms of the term “coordinate,” when used in the context of taking one or more measurements, are defined as being coordinated within an error tolerance of at least one of 2%, 1%, 0.5%, or 0.1% margin of error. The term “approximately synchronize” and similar forms of the term “approximately synchronize,” when used in the context of taking coordinating one or more measurements, are defined as being synchronized within an error tolerance of at least one of 2%, 1%, 0.5%, or 0.1% margin of error.